The Louisiana House voted for budget cuts, drawing down reserve accounts and dozens of potential tax hikes Thursday (Feb. 25) in the first major round of voting aimed at fixing Louisiana's financial crisis.

The state is looking to close a $900 million budget deficit in the current fiscal year and avoid substantial reductions to colleges, universities and hospitals. Louisiana must also deal with a $2 billion shortfall in the next fiscal cycle that could require a dramatic slashing and restructuring of government services.

The Louisiana Legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards only have until March 9 to resolve the financial problem. Lawmakers are already at the halfway point of their special session to deal with financial issues.

House members chose to skip over a number of the bills to potentially increase taxes. The chamber did not take up any tax hike bills related to cigarettes, alcohol, income, business utilities and business inventory. It also skipped over legislation that extend tax increases put in place last year.

Summary: This legislation increases the sales tax from four cents of tax per dollar of sales to five cents of tax per dollar of sales on almost all items. This tax increase would go into effect on April 1 and last for 18 months.

Last-minute changes made on the House floor: The bill did not include an end date at first. That change was added into the bill on the House floor to make it more palatable to Republicans, who were uncomfortable with the tax increase.

Some heavy industrial equipment was also exempted from the sales tax, a move that benefits the chemical companies, agricultural industry and some other business interests. That exception to the sales tax will cost the state about $20 million in extra revenue annually.

Sponsor: State Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-West Monroe

House vote: House voted 76-27 to pass it; Senate has not take up the bill yet

Financial impact: The bill would generate $210 million for the current budget year that ends June 30. It would generate over $900 million for next year's budget hole of $2 billion.

Summary: This legislation outlines that budget cuts that will happen before June 30. When it came out of House Appropriations Wednesday morning, it included $107 million worth of reductions, but now only has $101 million.

Last-minute changes made on the House floor: About $6 million worth of cuts to local governments have come out of the legislation, bringing the total package of budget cuts down from $107 million to $101 million.

The bill will also no longer cut human service districts as much, and a $44 million cut to local schools is now supposed to be absorbed by the Department of Education's central office.

Given that the education agency's central office only has a budget of around $63 million in state funding left for the year, the $44 million would amount to an 85 percent reduction to its state funding for the rest of the year. It would mean a complete shutdown of the voucher program, widespread layoffs of central office staff and an end to all private school support provided.

Sponsor: State Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie

Vote: House passed unanimously; Senate hasn't considered it

Financial impact: It will save around $101 million for the budget that ends June 30 as currently amended.

Summary: This legislation would allow the state to collect sales tax on Internet purchases more easily. Currently, people are supposed to hand over sales tax related to internet purchases to the state, but very few do. It would start April 1.

This would require many retail outlets to collect the sales tax on Louisiana purchases and report it to the state. It is sometimes called an "Amazon" bill because it would require sales tax collection on Amazon.com purchases.

Last-minute changes made on the House floor: No substantial changes made

Summary: This legislation would have put a 3 percent tax increase on many car rentals. The new tax would not have applied to vehicles rented when someone's car in the shop because of an accident or needed repair. So it was mostly aimed at out-of-state tourists that rent cars.

Last-minute changes made on the House floor: No substantial changes made

Sponsor: State Rep. Julie Stokes, R-Kenner

Vote: House failed to passed the bill on a 68-33 vote (Tax bills need 70 votes to pass); Senate hasn't considered it

Financial impact: If it had passed, it would generate $800,000 for the current budget deficit and $6 million to help with next year's problem

Next step: Stokes may bring the bill up for another vote, since it almost passed

Summary: This legislation caps the amount of money vendors -- retail stores and the like -- can keep for reporting sales tax collections in a timely manner. It now says vendors can only keep a maximum of $1,000 per month. It would go into effect April 1.

The bill supposedly only affects larger vendors. An independent analysis shows that only about 267 vendors retain more than $1,000 per month of their sales tax collections.

Summary: This bill would assess the hotel room tax of 4 percent on short-term rentals through websites like Airbnb.

Last-minute changes made on the House floor: This additional tax was originally supposed to apply to discount online hotel room bookers like Expedia.com and Priceline.com. But those outlets were removed in order to get the support of the tourism industry.

Summary: This bill requires sales tax vendors -- like retail stores -- to pay 75 percent of the sales tax it anticipates collecting in advance. The new requirement would only apply to vendors that gross more than $20,000 per month.

Summary: This legislation will require certain deductions corporations currently take to added back onto state tax returns. This bill would apply to 2016 returns, but fiscal analysts say the state probably won't start collecting extra revenue from it for another couple of budget cycles. Corporate tax collections are complicated, and typically have a lag when a change is made.

Last-minute changes made on the House floor: An amendment was made to make the bill effective immediately if passed.

Summary: This legislation permanently eliminates the ability to earn an income tax credit in Louisiana on income earned in other states. This benefit was temporarily repealed last year, but hadn't be made permanent.